CN113128823B

CN113128823B - Automatic guided vehicle management system and method

Info

Publication number: CN113128823B
Application number: CN202011481283.8A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 赛门·威尔; 孙雅娟; 孙博文; 林立勇; 苏荣
Original assignee: Delta Electronics International Singapore Pte Ltd
Current assignee: Delta Electronics International Singapore Pte Ltd
Priority date: 2019-12-31
Filing date: 2020-12-15
Publication date: 2024-07-19
Anticipated expiration: 2040-12-15
Also published as: US20210200240A1; SG10201914066TA; US11829157B2; CN113128823A; US20240045444A1

Abstract

The application provides an automatic guided vehicle management system and a method thereof. The battery charging management module manages the automatic guided vehicle to be charged by the wireless charging unit in the parking area and ensures that the automatic guided vehicle leaving the parking area has battery power higher than a charging threshold. The task management module receives the task and assigns the task to the automated guided vehicle. The information in the task includes pick-up location, discharge location and deadline. The automatic guided vehicle path planning module plans the path of the automatic guided vehicle according to the information of the assigned task. If the automated guided vehicle predicts that the task can be completed before the deadline of the task, the task management module delays assigning the task to the automated guided vehicle.

Description

Automatic guided vehicle management system and method

Technical Field

The present application relates to automated guided vehicle (automated guided vehicle) management, and more particularly to an automated guided vehicle management system and method.

Background

As manufacturing rapidly progresses to the industry 4.0 era, there is an increasing demand for increasing the level of automation equipment in factory configuration. For this reason, factory systems need to be more efficient and cost effective and to overcome the uncertainty in the environment. In particular, in factories, there is a need to utilize an efficient and coordinated fleet of automated guided vehicles to automatically transport materials and products, and to ensure that the automated guided vehicles continue to operate even when the battery level is insufficient. In addition, the operation of a plant is often strictly qualified and its supply needs are largely unpredictable. Therefore, if the route planning, task assignment, battery charging management and the like of the automatic guided vehicle management system can be optimized, the efficiency can be improved, and the automatic operation of a factory is facilitated.

The existing warehouse automation solving method is used for paying attention to and processing the problems of efficiently coordinating the paths and task assignment, battery charging management, task generation and the like of a plurality of automatic guided vehicles. For example, U.S. patent application publication 2018/0276604 solves the problem with just-in-time process, but the method of automated supply replenishment is inflexible due to attempts to maintain small parts inventory. Furthermore, the patent achieves just-in-time (just-in-time) processing by solving task generation problems (i.e., considering when delivery tasks should be generated) rather than task assignments (i.e., considering when delivery tasks generated should be assigned). Specifically, once a task is generated, the assignment of that task will be completed immediately. In addition, the battery charge management method of U.S. patent 10,089,586 is inflexible and covers only static charging strategies, i.e., the automated guided vehicle stops charging when it has sufficient charge, and whether it is sufficient is determined by comparing it with a constant. These systems require further optimization in many respects and are not effective in solving the problems in the manner of operation described above. For example, existing solutions typically make task assignment decisions immediately whenever a new task is generated. However, if an automated guided vehicle is assigned too early, valuable automated guided vehicle resources are wasted if not necessary, and may not be found as urgent as the newly generated task after the assignment. For this reason, it is necessary to develop timely task allocation strategies that have not been considered previously.

Therefore, it is an urgent need to develop an automatic guided vehicle management system and method that can improve the above prior art.

Disclosure of Invention

The present application is directed to an automatic guided vehicle management system and method, which overcomes the above-mentioned drawbacks of the prior art. According to the energy, delivery time and deadline analysis, the automatic guided vehicle management system and method of the application can ensure that idle automatic guided vehicles with more battery power can be assigned with tasks preferentially and ensure timely task assignment. Which is to achieve timely processing by controlling task assignments rather than task generation. In addition, the automated guided vehicle management system and method of the present application allow for a dynamic charging strategy for automated guided vehicles and ensure that automated guided vehicles exiting a parking area have at least sufficient battery power to perform a useful task. Furthermore, the automated guided vehicle management system and method of the present application can coordinate the path of the automated guided vehicle to reduce the occurrence of obstacles encountered on the path and minimize the transportation time while coping with environmental uncertainty.

In order to achieve the above objective, the present application provides an automatic guided vehicle management system, which comprises a battery charging management module, a task management module and an automatic guided vehicle path planning module. The battery charge management module is configured to manage a plurality of automated guided vehicles to be charged by at least one wireless charging unit in the parking area. The battery charge management module is used for ensuring that the automatic guided vehicle leaving the parking area has battery power higher than a charge threshold. The task management module is configured to receive a plurality of tasks and assign the plurality of tasks to a plurality of automated guided vehicles. The information in the task includes at least one pick-up location, at least one discharge location, and a deadline. The automated guided vehicle planning module is configured to plan a path for the plurality of automated guided vehicles, respectively, based on the assigned information for the plurality of tasks. If the automated guided vehicle predicts that the task can be completed before the deadline of the task, the task management module delays assigning the task to the automated guided vehicle.

In order to achieve the above object, the present application provides an automatic guided vehicle management method, comprising the following steps: managing the plurality of automated guided vehicles to be charged by at least one wireless charging unit in the parking area to ensure that automated guided vehicles exiting the parking area have a battery level above a charging threshold; receiving a plurality of tasks, wherein the information in the tasks comprises at least one pick-up location, at least one discharge location, a destination and a deadline; temporarily assigning a plurality of tasks to a plurality of automated guided vehicles; planning paths for the assigned automatic guided vehicles according to the information of the tasks which are tentatively assigned; judging whether the battery electric quantity of the assigned automatic guided vehicle is enough to complete the task, if so, performing the subsequent steps; if the judgment result is negative, charging the assigned automatic guided vehicles, and repeating the step of tentatively assigning a plurality of tasks to a plurality of automatic guided vehicles; if the automated guided vehicle predicts that the task can be completed before the deadline of the task, delaying assignment of the task to the automated guided vehicle; and controlling the assigned automated guided vehicle to arrive at the destination at the deadline.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of an automated guided vehicle management system according to an embodiment of the application.

Fig. 2 is a flow chart of an automated guided vehicle management method according to an embodiment of the application.

Fig. 3 schematically illustrates a software architecture of an automated guided vehicle management system according to an embodiment of the application, including a method of wireless charging unit configuration optimization according to an embodiment of the application.

Fig. 4 is a flowchart of a method for configuration optimization of a wireless charging unit according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 5 is a schematic view of a factory environment for manufacturing printed circuit boards.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of a logistics automation framework in accordance with an embodiment of the present application.

Wherein reference numerals are as follows:

1: automatic guided vehicle management system

11: Battery charging management module

12: Task management module

13: Automatic guided vehicle path planning module

S11, S12, S13, S14, S15, S16, S17, S21, S22, S23: step (a)

21: First chamber

22: A second chamber

23: Third chamber

24: Fourth chamber

Detailed Description

Some exemplary embodiments embodying features and advantages of the present application will be described in detail in the following description. It will be understood that the application is capable of various modifications in various embodiments, all without departing from the scope of the application, and that the description and illustrations herein are intended to be by way of illustration only and not to be construed as limiting the application. For example, if the following disclosure describes forming a first feature over or on a second feature, that includes embodiments in which the first feature and the second feature are formed in direct contact, embodiments in which additional features may be formed between the first feature and the second feature that may not be in direct contact. In addition, repeated reference characters and/or words of description may be used in the various embodiments of the application, which are for the purpose of simplicity and clarity and are not intended to limit the relationship between the various embodiments and/or the appearance of structures. Furthermore, for convenience in describing the relationship of an element or feature to another element(s) or feature(s) in the drawings, spatially relative terms such as "below …", "below …", "lower", "above …", "upper" and the like may be used and it is understood that the spatially relative terms encompass different orientations of the device in use or operation in addition to the orientation depicted in the figures. The device may also be otherwise positioned (e.g., rotated 90 degrees or at other orientations) and the spatially relative descriptors of the spatially relative descriptors used herein interpreted accordingly. When an element is referred to as being "connected" or "coupled" to another element, it can be directly connected or coupled to the other element or be an additional element present therein. Notwithstanding that the numerical ranges and parameters of the broad scope of the disclosure are approximations, the numerical values set forth in the specific examples are reported as precisely as possible. Although the terms "first," "second," "third," etc. may be used in the claims to describe various elements, these elements should not be limited by these terms, and the elements described accordingly in the embodiments are used to describe different reference numbers, these terms are used merely to distinguish one element from another, for example, a first element may be referred to as a second element, and similarly, a second element may be referred to as a first element, without departing from the scope of the embodiments. the term "and/or" as used herein includes any or all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items. Furthermore, numerical ranges or parameters inherently contain errors necessarily resulting from the individual test measurements. Also, the term "about" or "substantially" as appearing herein generally means within 10%, 5%, 1%, or 0.5% of a given value or range. Alternatively, the term "about" or "substantially" means within an error acceptable to those skilled in the art. Except in the operating/working examples, or where otherwise explicitly indicated, all numerical ranges, amounts, values, and percentages disclosed herein (as for the amount, time, temperature, operating conditions, ratio of amounts, and the like of materials disclosed herein) are to be understood as modified by the term "about" or "substantially" in all embodiments. Accordingly, unless indicated to the contrary, the numerical parameters set forth in this disclosure and the attached claims are approximations that may vary as desired. For example, each numerical parameter should at least be construed in light of the number of reported significant digits and by applying ordinary rounding principles. Ranges can be expressed herein as from one endpoint to the other endpoint, or between two endpoints. All ranges disclosed herein are inclusive of the endpoints unless otherwise specified.

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of an automated guided vehicle management system according to an embodiment of the application. As shown in fig. 1, the automated guided vehicle management system 1 includes a battery charge management module 11, a task management module 12, and an automated guided vehicle path planning module 13. The battery charge management module 11 is configured to manage the charging of a plurality of automated guided vehicles in a parking area having at least one wireless charging unit therein for charging the automated guided vehicles. The battery charge management module 11 is configured to ensure that the automated guided vehicle leaving the parking area has a battery level above a charge threshold. The task management module 12 is configured to receive tasks and assign tasks to automated guided vehicles. The information in the task includes at least one pick-up location, at least one discharge location, a destination, and a deadline. The automated guided vehicle path planning module 13 is configured to plan a path for each of the plurality of automated guided vehicles based on the information of the assigned task. If the automated guided vehicle is expected to complete the task before the expiration time of the task, the task management module 12 delays assigning the task to the automated guided vehicle. When a task is assigned or when the battery of the automated guided vehicle needs to be charged, the task management module 12 and the battery charging management module 11 provide a destination to the automated guided vehicle and plan a path to the destination through the automated guided vehicle path planning module 13. As the automated guided vehicle moves around, its battery level will also update in real time (decrease during movement, increase during charging), and the assigned task list will also update after loading or unloading.

In some embodiments, the battery charge management module 11 operates in two modes. In the first mode, each automated guided vehicle has a dedicated wireless charging unit in the parking area. The automated guided vehicle is charged during a stop without additional charge logic management. In the second mode, the number of wireless charging units in the parking area is less than the number of automated guided vehicles, in which case the automated guided vehicles may need to share the wireless charging units in the parking area. In particular, the battery charge management module 11 cycles through each wireless charging unit in the parking area while determining the automated guided vehicle that has the lowest battery charge and is unassigned. In one embodiment, the battery charge management module 11 determines the automated guided vehicle with the lowest battery level and unassigned by each wireless charging unit. If the wireless charging unit is in an idle state when inspected, the determined automated guided vehicle is assigned to the wireless charging unit in the parking area. In addition, the battery charge management module 11 may reassign a new automated guided vehicle to the wireless charging unit in the parking area if the following two conditions are met. The first condition is that the battery level of the currently charging automated guided vehicle is greater than the charging threshold, thereby ensuring that the automated guided vehicle exiting the parking area has at least enough battery level to complete a useful task. The second condition is that the battery power of the currently charging automated guided vehicle is greater than the sum of the battery power of the new automated guided vehicle and the preset power value, thereby ensuring that time and battery power are not wasted in moving different automated guided vehicles into or out of the same wireless charging unit in the parking area.

In some embodiments, the task management module 12 keeps track of all tasks and assigns tasks to idle automated guided vehicles. The task management module 12 assigns tasks to the automated guided vehicles that are idle and can complete tasks at the earliest delivery time, and automated guided vehicles with higher battery levels will be assigned tasks preferentially. In addition, the task management module 12 determines whether the automated guided vehicle can reach the destination before the expiration time. If so, the task management module 12 delays assignment tasks to the automated guided vehicle to ensure timely (just-in-time) assignment is achieved. If a task has been assigned to the automated guided vehicle, the task management module 12 will additionally assign additional tasks to the automated guided vehicle that need to be delivered to the vicinity of the current trip. Furthermore, the task management module 12 predicts the energy that the automated guided vehicle needs to use to complete the assigned task. If the battery power of the automated guided vehicle is greater than the sum of the energy consumed in the trip and the predetermined energy reserve, the task is assigned to the automated guided vehicle, and the task list is not changed until the assigned task is completed, otherwise, the assignment is delayed. Thus, based on energy, delivery time and deadline analysis, the task management system 12 may be used to ensure that an automated guided vehicle that is idle and has a higher battery level is given priority to tasks, while enabling timely (just-in-time) task assignment by controlling task assignment rather than task generation.

In some embodiments, the assigned automated guided vehicle will move to pick up and drop off targets based on pick-up and drop-off locations included in the information including the task. The automated guided vehicle path planning module 13 plans the path of the automated guided vehicle so that the automated guided vehicle passes through the pick-up and drop-off locations in a specified order. To ensure that the paths of multiple automated guided vehicles are effectively and efficiently coordinated under environmental uncertainty, the automated guided vehicle path planning module 13 performs path planning using the a-algorithm, which performs on-line re-planning using a hybrid rolling domain (receding horizon)/incremental scheduling strategy. In some embodiments, each automated guided vehicle's path is re-planned every x time units passed and all other automated guided vehicles' trajectories for the next y time units (where y > x) are considered in re-planning the path. In other words, the other automatic guided vehicles are considered to be moving obstacles with known trajectories, and the automatic guided vehicle path planning module 13 calculates the paths of the automatic guided vehicles incrementally and considers the trajectories of the other automatic guided vehicles when planning the paths of the automatic guided vehicles. Furthermore, obstacles to non-automated guided vehicles may be introduced when re-planning the path. The incremental scheduling is flexible and allows low priority automated guided vehicles to delay the time course of high priority automated guided vehicles, while the rolling domain scheduling ensures the robustness of the anti-collision performance and optimizes time utilization under environmental uncertainty.

Fig. 2 is a flow chart of an automated guided vehicle management method according to an embodiment of the application. As shown in fig. 2, the automated guided vehicle management method includes the following steps.

In step S11, the plurality of automatic guided vehicles are charged by at least one wireless charging unit in the parking area, so as to ensure that the automatic guided vehicles leaving the parking area have a battery level higher than the charging threshold.

In step S12, a task is received, wherein the information in the task includes at least one pick-up location, at least one discharge location, a destination, and a deadline.

In step S13, a task is tentatively assigned to the automated guided vehicle.

In step S14, a path of each of the plurality of automated guided vehicles is planned according to the information of the tentatively assigned task.

In step S15, it is determined whether the battery power of the assigned automated guided vehicle is sufficient to complete the task. If yes, executing the subsequent steps. If the determination result is no, the assigned automated guided vehicle charges in the parking area, and step S13 is repeated.

In step S16, if the automated guided vehicle expects to complete the task before the deadline for the task, the task is deferred to be assigned to the automated guided vehicle.

In step S17, the assigned automated guided vehicle is controlled to reach the destination at the deadline.

In some embodiments, step S15 further includes the steps of: it is determined whether the assigned automated guided vehicle has a predetermined remaining power after completion of the task. If yes, carrying out the subsequent steps. If the determination result is no, the assigned automated guided vehicle charges in the parking area, and step S13 is repeated.

Please refer to fig. 3. Fig. 3 schematically illustrates a software architecture for an automated guided vehicle management system that is a configuration that includes an optimized wireless charging unit, according to an embodiment of the application. The user provides the regional layout (e.g., factory layout), tasks, and simulation parameters and options using the user interface, and the data provided is input to the automated guided vehicle management system 1. The automated guided vehicle management system 1 considers the battery power of the automated guided vehicles and generates mutually coordinated paths for the plurality of automated guided vehicles depending on the assigned tasks. The path of the automated guided vehicle may be used simultaneously to optimize the configuration of the wireless charging unit.

It should be noted that the wireless charging unit may include a wireless charging unit in a parking area and an OTG (on-the-go) wireless charging unit. Even if the automated guided vehicle is moving, the OTG wireless charging unit can charge any automated guided vehicle above it. Thus, by charging the moving automated guided vehicle, the OTG wireless charging unit may reduce or even eliminate any delay caused by battery charging.

Fig. 4 is a flowchart of a method of optimizing the configuration of a wireless charging unit according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 4, the method of optimizing the configuration of the wireless charging unit includes the following steps.

In step S21, a route of the automated guided vehicle is acquired.

In step S22, the charging demand distribution on the connection segment between each road point is calculated according to the path.

In step S23, the configuration of the wireless charging unit on each connection segment is optimized according to the charging demand distribution. The distribution density of the OTG wireless charging units on the connecting section is determined according to the charging demand distribution.

In some embodiments, the above-described wireless charging units shown in fig. 4 may be OTG (on-the-go) wireless charging units, wherein the OTG wireless charging units charge the automated guided vehicle when the automated guided vehicle moves over the OTG wireless charging units. In an embodiment, fig. 4 is a flowchart of a method for optimizing configuration of an OTG (on-the-go) wireless charging unit according to an embodiment of the present application, more specifically, a method for optimizing configuration of a plurality of OTG (on-the-go) wireless charging units, which includes the following steps.

In step S21, a route of the automated guided vehicle is acquired.

In step S23, the configuration of the plurality of wireless charging units on each connection segment is optimized according to the charging demand distribution. The distribution density of the plurality of OTG wireless charging units on the connecting section is determined according to the charging demand distribution.

In order to obtain an optimal configuration of the OTG wireless charging unit, reference needs to be made to a representative automated guided vehicle movement sequence, wherein it is assumed that the automated guided vehicle has an infinite battery charge. The movement sequence may be obtained by simulating or looking at the movement of the automated guided vehicle under current actual operation. From the moving sequence of the automatic guided vehicle, a Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) problem can be constructed. The mixed integer linear programming is used to calculate the minimum budget required to install and achieve optimal configuration of the OTG wireless charging unit, and the battery power of each automated guided vehicle is never below a certain threshold. Furthermore, as a variant of the above problem, mixed integer linear programming can be used to minimize the delay due to battery charging, provided that only a fixed budget is available for installing the OTG wireless charging unit.

In some embodiments, the steps of the method of optimizing the configuration of the wireless charging unit may be repeated, and these steps are repeated as the operating environment or conditions of the automated guided vehicle change.

Taking the automated guided vehicle application in a factory as an example, fig. 5 illustrates a factory environment for manufacturing printed circuit boards (printed circuit board, PCBs). As shown in fig. 5, the first chamber 21, the second chamber 22, the third chamber 23 and the fourth chamber 24 are for storing a stencil (step) unit, a component storing unit, a processed printed circuit board and a printed circuit board to be processed, respectively. The component storing unit may be, for example, a component tape or a case accommodating a plurality of component tapes. The automated guided vehicle is a load port that transports printed circuit boards to be processed to a machine line and replaces the old component storage units and templates with new ones for the machine line to process. After the printed circuit board processing is completed, the automated guided vehicle picks up the processed printed circuit board from the unloading port of the machine line and transports it to the third room 23 for storage. In each chamber there is a parking area dedicated to the automated guided vehicle and a specific port for loading and/or unloading the automated guided vehicle. Specifically, the specific ports in the first and second chambers 21 and 22 are used for loading and unloading the stencil units and the component storage units, respectively, the specific port in the third chamber 23 is used for unloading the processed printed circuit board, and the specific port in the fourth chamber 24 is used for loading the printed circuit board to be processed. Multiple load ports may be required for each machine line for use in replacing the template unit and/or the component storage unit. In some embodiments, each automated guided vehicle may have its stationary form and be configured to transport a particular type of object, and each automated guided vehicle may carry more than one object at a time.

Please refer to fig. 3 and fig. 5. The user interface allows the user to draw the factory layout using waypoints, connection segments, automated guided vehicles, wireless charging units, load ports, machine lines, and stationary obstructions. The boundary of the factory layout and the machine production line are both static barriers, which can be drawn into the factory layout and the size thereof can be adjusted according to the requirements of users. The factory layout with waypoints and connection segments shown in fig. 5 is drawn using the user interface.

The user can interact with the simulated environment in three modes and assign tasks to the automated guided vehicle management system 1. In the first mode, the user can manually assign tasks to different machine lines before computation and simulation begins. Alternatively, in the second mode, the user may randomly assign tasks to different machine lines. After the assignment of the task, path planning and simulation is started, wherein it is assumed that the battery level is infinite. In addition, the software provides statistics to display the outcome of the path planning procedure, including the calculation time, the amount of time required to complete the task, a lower limit estimate of the amount of time required to complete the task, and so forth. In the third mode, the user selects the scroll field/delta scheduling method and the priority scheduling method, and the user can dynamically assign tasks to different machine lines while performing the simulation. When the user selects the scroll field/delta scheduling method, the user can dynamically add and remove obstacles. The software module may be re-programmed in real time to avoid collision of the automated guided vehicle with an obstacle. In the third mode, for each automated guided vehicle, the user may track the battery power and planned path of each automated guided vehicle, as well as statistics of the loading and unloading tasks, including assigned automated guided vehicles, completion time points, elapsed time of completion, average delivery time, and so forth. In addition, in the third mode, the user may also randomly assign tasks to different machine lines. The task generation rate is determined by the specific simulation parameters.

Table 1 shows a performance comparison of the factory environment with or without optimizing the configuration of the OTG wireless charging unit during the experiment for five minutes. Wherein the average delivery time and average battery power per minute are compared in the case of randomly assigning tasks with the same parameter conditions.

TABLE 1

In table 1, the data of the configuration of the non-optimized OTG wireless charging unit is represented in a first tuple (non-optimized), and the data of the configuration of the optimized OTG wireless charging unit is represented in a second tuple (method of the present application). Thus, it can be observed that the average delivery time difference between the two different configurations grows linearly. Therefore, with the configuration of the optimized OTG wireless charging unit, performance degradation and factory delay caused by insufficient battery power are greatly reduced. In particular, in the long term, the performance difference becomes more significant, and thus it can be said that optimizing the configuration of the OTG wireless charging unit can greatly reduce the delay caused by charging. In addition, it can be observed that the average battery level is always higher in case of optimizing the configuration of the OTG wireless charging unit.

The above is an example of the application of the automatic guided vehicle management system and the method for optimizing the configuration of the wireless charging unit in a factory, but the present application is not limited thereto, and the method and the automatic guided vehicle management system proposed by the present application are equally applicable to similar environments, such as warehouse and logistics.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of a logistics automation framework in accordance with an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 6, the logistic automation frame comprises a plurality of automatic guided vehicles, a plurality of universal sensor units, an anti-interference wireless communicator, a plurality of first-stage computers and a plurality of second-stage computers. The plurality of automated guided vehicles may include a plurality of different functions, different types of automated guided vehicles, such as a stacker, tractor, material handling, or other transport functions. The universal sensor unit collects and locally processes environmental information and provides sensing, planning and motion control for different automated guided vehicles. The sensor unit may be, for example, but not limited to, truepath kit (Truepath Kit). The anti-interference wireless communicator is integrated with a plurality of universal sensor units, and transmits events generated after the local processing of the universal sensor units. In some embodiments, the range over which the anti-interference wireless communicator performs wireless transmissions is longer than the standard Wi-Fi a/b/g/n protocol. The first level computer is configured to acquire data and bandwidth management and is used with a user interface (e.g., a mobile platform user interface) of the automated guided vehicle management system 1. The first level computer processes the data received from the general purpose sensor unit and transmits only events to the second level computer. On the other hand, the first-level computer transmits the control instruction from the second-level computer to the general-purpose sensor unit. The first level computer may be, for example, but is not limited to, an aggregator (aggregator). The second level computer is used as a proxy for the primary server and is used in conjunction with a user interface (e.g., a mobile platform user interface) of the automated guided vehicle management system 1. In some embodiments, the universal sensor unit, the first level computer, and the second level computer may be coupled to a database.

The universal sensor unit collects real-time data on the automated guided vehicle and transmits the data to the first level computer. After the first computer processes the data from the general sensor unit, the processed data is transmitted to the second computer, which is the location of the automated guided vehicle management system software. On the other hand, the automatic guided vehicle management system software issues a control instruction to the first-stage computer. Then, the first-level computer transmits the instruction to the general-purpose sensor unit. The plurality of software modules are integrated into the automated guided vehicle management system software, such as the battery charge management module 11, the task management module 12, and the automated guided vehicle path planning module 13 described above.

In summary, the present application provides an automatic guided vehicle management system and method. According to the energy, delivery time and deadline analysis, the automated guided vehicle management system and method of the present application ensures that idle automated guided vehicles with more battery power are assigned tasks with priority and that tasks are assigned in a timely manner. Which is to achieve timely processing by controlling task assignment rather than task generation. In addition, the automated guided vehicle management system and method of the present application allow for a dynamic charging strategy for automated guided vehicles and ensure that automated guided vehicles exiting a parking area have at least sufficient battery power to perform a useful task. Furthermore, the automated guided vehicle management system and method of the present application can coordinate the path of the automated guided vehicle to reduce the occurrence of obstacles encountered on the path and minimize the transportation time while coping with environmental uncertainty.

It should be noted that the above-mentioned preferred embodiments are only presented for illustrating the application, and that the application is not limited to the described embodiments, the scope of which is defined by the appended claims. And the application is modified in various ways by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the appended claims.

Claims

1. An automated guided vehicle management system comprising:

A battery charge management module configured to manage a plurality of automated guided vehicles charged by at least one wireless charging unit in a parking area, wherein the battery charge management module is configured to ensure that the automated guided vehicles exiting the parking area have a battery level above a charge threshold;

A task management module configured to receive a plurality of tasks and assign the tasks to the plurality of automated guided vehicles, wherein a message in the tasks includes at least one pick-up location, at least one discharge location, and a deadline; and

An automated guided vehicle path planning module configured to plan paths for the plurality of automated guided vehicles based on the information of the assigned plurality of tasks,

Wherein if the automated guided vehicle is expected to complete the task before the deadline for the task, the task management module delays assigning the task to the automated guided vehicle,

If the battery power of a first automatic guided vehicle being charged in the plurality of automatic guided vehicles is greater than the charging threshold and is greater than the sum of a preset power value and the battery power of a second automatic guided vehicle not being charged in the plurality of automatic guided vehicles, the battery charging management module reassigns the second automatic guided vehicle to replace the first automatic guided vehicle to be charged by the wireless charging unit.

2. The automated guided vehicle management system of claim 1, wherein each automated guided vehicle has a dedicated wireless charging unit in the parking area.

3. The automated guided vehicle management system of claim 1, wherein the battery charge management module assigns the automated guided vehicle having the lowest battery level to the wireless charging unit.

4. The automated guided vehicle management system of claim 1, wherein the task management module assigns additional tasks to the automated guided vehicle if the automated guided vehicle is expected to complete the task before the deadline for the task.

5. An automated guided vehicle management method comprising:

Managing a plurality of automated guided vehicles to be charged by at least one wireless charging unit in a parking area to ensure that the automated guided vehicles leaving the parking area have a battery level above a charging threshold;

Receiving a plurality of tasks, wherein one piece of information in the tasks comprises at least one pick-up place, at least one discharge place, a destination and a deadline;

temporarily assigning the plurality of tasks to the plurality of automated guided vehicles;

planning paths for the assigned automatic guided vehicles according to the information of the tasks which are tentatively assigned;

Judging whether the battery electric quantity of the assigned automatic guided vehicle is enough to complete the task, if so, performing the subsequent steps; if the judgment result is negative, charging the assigned automatic guided vehicles, and repeating the step of tentatively assigning the tasks to the automatic guided vehicles;

if the automated guided vehicle expects to complete the task before the deadline for the task, delaying assigning the task to the automated guided vehicle; and

Controlling the assigned automated guided vehicle to arrive at the destination at the deadline,

In the step of managing the plurality of automatic guided vehicles to be charged by the at least one wireless charging unit in the parking area, if the battery power of a first automatic guided vehicle being charged in the plurality of automatic guided vehicles is greater than the charging threshold and greater than the sum of a preset power value and the battery power of a second automatic guided vehicle not being charged in the plurality of automatic guided vehicles, the second automatic guided vehicle is reassigned to replace the first automatic guided vehicle to be charged by the wireless charging unit.

6. The automated guided vehicle management method of claim 5, wherein each automated guided vehicle has a dedicated wireless charging unit in the parking area.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein in managing the plurality of automated guided vehicles for charging by the at least one wireless charging unit in the parking area, the automated guided vehicle having the lowest battery level is assigned to the wireless charging unit.

8. The automated guided vehicle management method of claim 5, further comprising the step of: if the automated guided vehicle is expected to complete the task before the deadline for the task, additional tasks are assigned to the automated guided vehicle.